Chauvinism or Responsibility?

So Ruth lay at Boaz’s feet until the morning, but she got up before it was light enough for people to recognize each other.  For Boaz had said, “No one must know that a woman was here at the threshing floor.” [Ruth 3.14]

So, was what Naomi encouraged Ruth to do by spending the night with Boaz unacceptable in that culture?

This whole story is intriguing in a lot of ways, but namely in that the people and culture of this story seem to have a viable system for caring for the down-and-out (widows being the case in point).

While a lot of energy could be spent pointing out how chauvinistic Boaz's culture was, equal, if not more energy could be spent learning of the responsibility that men carried.  With this mindset then , it is not difficult to respect men like Boaz who took that responsibility seriously.

No matter what may be said about the culture of this story, one must conclude that it worked.  We must move away from the derogatory labeling of this ancient 'male-dominant' society and instead comprehend the benefit of it as a 'male-repsonsible' society!

Welfare was taken care of in this society at the family level and the responsibility of that welfare fell squarely upon the shoulders of the men.

Father, help men everywhere to comprehend the responsibility that You have imparted to them!  Help them (us) to rise to every occasion to take that responsibility seriously whether our current society accepts it or not.